Questions and Answers

The goal is to make your recovery as quick as possible. This page will be devoted to answering your questions. If you have a question which is not answered below or in the main reports at www.dstressdoc.com/skin.htm or www.dstressdoc.com/skin-problems.htm please e mail your question to richard@waterloov.com and in the subject line write "skin question." Go to the bottom of this page to see sample results of blood examined by Bowen laboratories.

One subscriber wrote to ask me about how to deal with depression. I’m surprised many others haven’t brought up the subject. I find it hard to believe that anyone could have these parasites with little or no support from the medical establishment and not get depressed. Before I discovered the connection with the diet and freedom of symptoms for me in the mid 90’s I thought that these parasites would take me to an early grave—not that they still won’t, but it won’t be as early as I feared. The only thing that gave me a lift from my depression was to try something new which always resulted in an ultimate let down. Almost everything I tried helped for a few days which lifted my spirits and then the floor fell out from under me. I had no guidance and no one to look to for hope. Fortunately, a friend suggested a connection between diet and symptoms and even though I thought it a crazy idea, I was grabbing at straws. Ultimately, I found an old-timer doctor who added ORAP and since then zyprexa to the mix and life took on normalcy for nearly ten years—I even got married and had normal close relations. Then, after separation in early 04, I got recontaminated from stored clothing and my first thought was to end my life. Depression hit me like a cement block falling a hundred feet—just the idea of having to go back to stage one of the diet and give up ice cream, bananas, and some other goodies on Stage II of the diet, and go through disinfection of the house was enough to tempt me to end my life.

What I preach in my stress management programs is to flow with life rather than try to control it. When you try to control something, you give power to it. So rather than try to control depression or those thoughts of doom I allowed them in my space. Sure it’s nice when you can blame someone else, but “an article of clothing.” It was easy for me to get upset and angry with myself for having missed disinfecting that article and I did so. Again, I allowed that anger into my space without resisting it remembering the example I use all the time—crying over spilt milk (no benefit). End result—what’s done is done and I can wallow in it or look for creative options—a great plug for my creativity program. I don’t mean this to sound like an ad for any of my cd’s, I only know that there’s no future in being pessimistic.

So this is what I said to myself as I was driving home from my office, “I’m depressed, I hate this feeling and I’d like to flow with it, see this from another point of view, learn from it somehow (sounds stupid since I was itching from head to toe and desperate for a hot shower).

I always like to look for options (I said that before—can’t say it enough):

1. end my life
2. wallow in depression
3. discover more about the diet.
I choose the latter, took a hot shower, decontaminated everything with ammonia spray, and made an appointment with my doctor for zyprexa.

So, don’t fight depression. Instead, flow with it and look for options. Aim your brain for creative options to learn, benefit others, get beyond it and your creative self will come through for you. It’s like trying to remember someone’s name—the more you effort at it and fight not knowing, the more elusive the person’s name is, shortly after you say, “heck with it,” the name comes to you. When you experience the emotion—whatever it is, it disappears—it’s history. Not that it might not return, in which case you go through it and let it go again.

Keep the diets sacred—for me any medication was a waste without the diet/s! I consider my infestation as serious as cancer and I know in communicating with many others that I was very fortunate in finding some early coping methods such as massive dosages of garlic and the diet that kept me sane and kept me from developing many ugly complications such as big subcutaneous masses that I’ve heard about, the lint-like substance, the biting that seems to reach the end of the nerves… Recent information bears out the necessity of Stage I to be maintained though out treatment with may last up to 90 days. For years I promoted the diet as a leaf on a tree figuring that once someone found the cure, the diet would be unnecessary. I now see the diet as the root and trunk of the tree and have come to realize that without the diet, no treatment (nutritional, medical, homeopathic, rifing...) will cure without the diet--it's that important.

Regarding the diet for candida and the itchy parasites.
Question: I'm on the candida diet and on some product labels, I notice that a serving of the particular food may have 2-or-3 grams of sugars even though the ingredient labels doesn't list any sugar as an ingredient. Should I only buy products with zero grams of sugars?

I believe this is something relatively new in the last few years where they list sugars and carbohydrates in grams per serving. Even though there may be no sugar listed in the ingredients, there may be sugar content in the food from the breakdown of the carbohydrates (carbs). Ideally, you're shooting for the lowest number possible whenever possible (zero). Seeing the 2 or 3 grams, I'd want to know what the carbs are and the nature of the carbs, i.e., simple or complex. Obviously, complex carbs are preferred to simple carbs, and whenever possible, zero carbs till you get through the detox period which may be another week or so. Now there may be a few complex carbs such as brown rice that may not be an issue. I don't know how much an issue would be for rye. And there are some grains I never got around to testing, barley, oats, spelt, and kamut.
FYI, simple carbs are generally refined grains as in white rice, puffed cereals, crackers where the grain may be bleached and the kernel broken down to make it easy and fast to prepare as in Minute Rice. Complex carbs are unrefined grains (simply crushed grains), as in brown rice, cereals made of flakes using whole grain, and crackers likewise made of whole grain and bran.

Question:

Richard, I'm a tad confused. Truth is, I'm totally confused. In one of my Morgellons files are an enormous collection of Morgellon related pictures, illustrations and photos. Yours, Morgellons, Annie Dill (below), and many others. I have seen approximately 75% of Annie Dill's specimens on me and around me, in my general environment. However, in something you posted the other day, and in many Morgellon/Lyme related sites, I find pictures of this worm. Usually it's pictured alone, with an arrow pointing to a cyst? or something. Some text draws attention to what they believe is large genitalia area on the worm's back. One post I read said this is one of the worms vets look for in animals--household and otherwise. What hasn't been explained is the connection between this particular insignificant looking worm and the multicolored parasites (or whatever they are) shown in the picture collections. Are the colorful ones Morgellons at various life stages? I always see remarkable similarities--but I've not read or heard of any creature with so many aliases. Don't want to take up your time, Richard. Just an informative web site will do. Thank you so much.

Answer:

Thanks for the email. I’ve been totally confused for almost 12 or so years. The only thing that has worked for me was diet and zyprexa which got me to 99+% freedom. Unless the Morgellons site has been changed, they do not know what causes the various phenomenon such as lesions that don’t heal which may have fibers in them or the little black specs people find in their bedding or the itching and biting that we experience.

For years I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s a mite, worm, fungus or a yeast. Most of us have been given anti mite creams, lotions, and medications and they only help for a few days.

I think for many of us some kind of mite introduced this other parasite which has been impervious to antibiotics, anti fungals and some de-wormer treatments.

The picture you’re referring to is not the worm as I first thought—it’s the larvae that has shown up in the stool. This is all relatively new—within the last 6 months that we’ve looked towards nematodes (worms) as being the culprit. I was prescribed ivermectin one time and it did nothing at which point my doctor announced that it had to be something else. Now I get reports of others using ivermectin successfully but with larger dosages and repeated applications instead of only a one shot deal. Some have reported having been diagnosed with the worm and treated with thiabenzole successfully.

So we have a group of people who relate with all the symptoms reported on Morgellons website and my own that have found the dewormer approach to either be very beneficial or a cure. My experience thus far indicates that even with de-wormers, it is such a strong species, that I would not do any de-wormer treatment without stage I of the diet.

http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Strongyloidiasis.htm is a cdc site that gives you the life cycle of this worm in even greater detail. It explains some of the mystery or our symptoms.

I hope this helps,

Be healthy and well,

Question: How do I ask my doctor for ORAP or zyprexa? I have been suffering for over 4 years with this.

Answer: How to get you doctor to prescribe orap or zyprexa? I presume that you've been to several doctors and have baffled them all. I imagine that some of them may be suggesting that you have a phobia of biting insects, delusions of parasitosis. You can only appeal to your doctor's desire to want to help you by telling him you did some research on the internet and found someone who had the same symptoms (assuming your's is the same as mine was), and got rid of the problem by his doctor prescribing orap or zyprexa. You can also go to http://www.fpnotebook.com/DER247.htm. where use of orap is documented. You can also inform him that standard plug samples (biopsies), are not effective for sampling for parasites of this nature as explained in the book, Life that Lives on Man. If your general practitioner won't give you a prescription for either orap or zyprexa, make an appointment with another doctor or dermatologist who may be open to supervising your use of either drug.

Question: Are you really sure that ammonia and or bleach in the laundry wash cycle kills them because it seems that it doesn't?

Answer: I've used it successfully during the time of my worst infestations and for years since then to maintain disinfection. I'd suspect that they are in other areas of your environment--rugs, chairs, mattress, shoes, slippers... and all the other places listed in step #5 of the main report. Also, if you still have shinny specks on your body, i.e. when sun light strikes your skin, do you see hundreds of tiny shinny sphere-like spots? If so, I suspect that they are the eggs of one of the species of mites or parasites (and I can't say for certain if it's a mite, but definitely a parasite) that haven't hatched yet so you're going to be constantly fighting them until they're hatched. I don't know exactly after my original infestation when they disappeared from my body, but I do know that I used near scalding baths sometimes two times per day. Dr. Harvey in the discussion I had with him suggested as cold a bath as you can stand, but I don't know what affect this might have on the eggs--perhaps once they've hatched the cold bath, but I believe the hot bath will expedite their hatching. Let me know.

Question: Should I use the diatomaceous earth in my bedding?

Answer: The instructions on the package of diatomaceous earth from yardic.com don't specifically cover these parasites. The instructions say, "Fleas: Thoroughly treat floor and bedding in and around pet's sleeping quarters. Treat surrounding cracks and crevices, baseboards, carpeting, and wherever fleas are suspected. There is no caution against using for human use or in bedding, however under the heading "Hazards to Humans and Domestic Animals" It says. "Caution: Causes moderate eye irritation. Avoid contact with eyes. Use adequate ventilation and avoid breathing dust. Wear a suitable dust mask when using this product during prolonged exposure." I didn't want to breathe the stuff so I used a dust mask and initially bought a duster for $30, but later I misplaced it and accomplished the same thing by placing the diatomaceous earth in a sock and shook it to dispense the dust. I used it only on mattress and the bottom side of the comforter. I used diluted ammonia (1part ammonia to about 3 or 4 parts water) to spray the mattress cover and top of comforter as I didn't launder them on a daily basis like I did the sheets. But don't get too hung up on what to dust and not to dust--that's just what I did. The most important thing is to minimize breathing the actual dust and getting the dust in your eyes so unless you're beating your bedding to make dust, there shouldn't be a big problem as to how you're using the diatomaceous earth. If you have any specific questions about it's use, you might contact the people at yardic.com directly.

Answer: I did some research on the conversions of iu to mg and came up empty. Maybe when I took them years ago the one soft jell was in international units, today it's in milligrams. I used up to 20 or 30 of them per day at 5,000 mg each. I can't tell you how much you should take, I can only say I used that much myself to stabilize the condition. Additionally, diet rules. Do nothing with any physician until you're on the diet for about a week and have taken all the precautions to decontaminate your home, office, car, and surroundings.

Are there any other treatments?
I had hoped for others to share effective treatments that they had found, but only one other person has reported anything else that gave her some relief.

4/13/04 addition
Interesting info from an Australian source http://www.cda.gov.au/pubs/cdi/2003/cdi2702/htm/cdi2702k.htm

"Blood-sucking mites are ectoparasites of a wide range of domestic and wild birds, as well as small mammals and certain reptiles. Bird mites are an important cause of ill health in poultry, and infestations result in decreased egg production, weakness, and susceptibility to infection. Under unusual circumstances, such as when breeding birds and their nestlings desert a nest, mites may attack other vertebrate hosts, including humans.^3,4 Insecticide treatment of infested humans and temporary vacation of infested premises are not sufficient to eliminate the problem because adult mites can survive for weeks or months without feeding.^3,5 Identification of bird mites can be attempted with a microscope and illustrations from a standard parasitology text.^1,2 Because most bird mites are less than a millimetre long, a magnification of 40 to 100 times is necessary for accurate identification."

Thanks Richard for sharing the information. I've been in this problem for 12 months now. As you've recommended I've called Dr. Harvey for 1 hr consultation already..

While you are in Dr. Harvey's treatment, do you still clean the house as you've been?

Answer: Once the pesty things are gone from your body--no more itching and biting, then you can stop treating the furniture and rugs and bedding. But you want to watch and be careful to avoid wearing clothes that were not disinfected that you might have worn before. You can be reinfected years and years later for contaminated clothing--the eggs seem to live forever.

That's not to say, you still won't have papules (sites) left on your body, but if you're on the diet and zyprexa they should not be a big problem for you--otherwise they seem to fuel the pesty and itchy ones.

I either washed the clothing and bedding in ammonia (colored) or bleach for whites. If I needed to wear something and didn't have time to take it to the cleaners, I'd turn it inside out, spray it thoroughly with ammonia solution, and then turn it right side in and let it dry before

What is all involved in this treatment? I remember reading something about shots but it didn't mention anything about the frequency of it and type of medication.

Is Dr. Harvey a derm. Doctor and are there shots? Answer: I believe that shots are only used when you have a highly weakened immune system. I'm not taking any shots. My treatment consists of four meds, one teaspoon of mepron every morning and two antibiotics per day plus some anti fungal once a week.

You've mentioned you were free of the decease for a while but got reinfected later.

After Dr. Harvey's treatment, do you think you might be still in the risk of getting reinfected? Answer: According to Dr. Harvey, once my immune system is back to normal, unless my immune system is somehow compromised (the flu or...), I should never get the mites again. That might be true for getting reinfected from clothing, but I had a cloud of dust infect me the first time and at some point, there could be enough of them that I don't think a strong immune system could do the job. I think however, had I thought of or had a doctor simply suggested some basic lotions such as calaydrl for the first day they would not develop to the point they had.

Also, you've mentioned that the blood test using a Lab facility in Florida . Was your blood drawn at Dr. Harvey's office? Why not a local Lab?

Answer: I was due to have my blood drawn by my regular physician so I informed her of my needs to have extra blood drawn and she didn't object. Dr. Harvey will send you the kit containing two vials. By the way, when you ship the vials by Fed Ex to the laboratory, things don't seem to be sized quite right and can be a bit frustrating.

Fed ex requires that the blood samples (which will be on an ice pack) be in a sealed bag inside a box and that everything be wrapped in absorbent material like paper towels in case of breakage and that everything again be in a sealed bag inside the shipping bag fed ex supplies you.

Your blood kit will include:
2 vials inside a Styrofoam container inside a box
1 zip lock bag with a space for your name on it.
Paper towel

The problem is that the two vials come in a Styrofoam container which along with the ice is supposed to go inside zip lock bag which in turn is supposed to go inside the box which in turn is to go inside a larger zip lock bag.

The problem is that the zip lock bag supplied is too small to fit both halves of the Styrofoam container inside. Plus all of this would not all fit inside the box.

How I did it for myself and later on my mother is that I only used half of the Styrofoam form, wrapped the ice in one towel and laid it on top of the blood samples which were in the Styrofoam form. This goes into the zip lock bag supplied with the kit--however, it seemed too small so you might want to take a quart size zip lock with you. Then this bag with the samples inside goes into the box that came with the tubes and can be wrapped with paper towels and it goes into a large zip lock bag which goes inside the Fed Ex bag. Of course, you could simply find a slightly larger box, use both halves of the Styrofoam, rubber band them together and along with a slightly larger zip lock bag everything should fit--just make sure everything will be secure from bouncing around in the box you choose. As I understand it, the ice needs to be next to the blood and not outside of the Styrofoam.

Also, not all Fed ex facilities can accept blood samples, you must call and find which ones have agents certified to handle blood samples.

And in case there's a question, the kit comes with a white bag with liquid in it, put it in your freezer to freeze and take it with you when you get your blood drawn. Wrap the ice pack in a paper towel, and then pack the blood in the ice inside the Styrofoam container--it won't close completely because the of the ice. Wrap the whole container in paper towels and use a rubber band to keep it from separating.

Question: Do they give you the result sheet for the test? Answer: Dr. Harvey’s office will mail the findings. You’ll get color photos showing the organisms in your blood.

Question: You must be just finishing 2/3 of Dr. Harvey's treatment. Could you tell us how you are doing as far as how you feel, any skin itch, any side effects and if you are still cleaning your surrounding etc.?

Answer: I would keep disinfecting as long as you feel them whenever you sit in your furniture or from your floor if you're barefoot. Dr. Harvey is not too much into the mites and how to disinfect--he's more into treating the blood disorder they caused and building your immune system so it can kill them. So anything you can do to reduce exposure as in keeping your laundry disinfected, car, work environment, chairs, etc is important as long as you feel them. When I say feel them, whenever I sat in a contaminated chair or stood on a contaminated rug, I'd feel small prickly feelings accompanied with a slight itch from them jumping onto my body from the rug or chairs.

I've since found that most likely my treatment will go for 6 months instead of 3 months as I originally thought. The only side effect I noticed was extreme thirst with the mepron, but that may have been because I took it for 7 weeks straight instead of 3 weeks and then off for a week.

My mother just started treatment a few days ago and she feels very sluggish and fatigued.

Question: What is all involved in this treatment? I remember reading something about shots but it didn't mention anything about the frequency of it and type of medication.

Answer: Once the pesty things are gone from your body--no more itching and biting, then you can stop treating the furniture and rugs and bedding. But you want to watch and be careful to avoid wearing clothes that were not disinfected that you might have worn before. You can be reinfected years and years later for contaminated clothing--the eggs seem to live forever.

I believe that shots are only used when you have a highly weakened immune system. I'm not taking any shots. My treatment consists of four meds, one teaspoon of mepron sus glax (antiprotozoan) every morning, metronidazo, SMZ/TMP (Sulfametoxazole/trimethroprim ((Bactrim)) anitbiotic), and Fluconazole, an anti fungal medicine. Some, who's immune system are highly compromised are given a treatment involving shots to boost immune function. After three months, I was switched to Zithromax in place of Bactrim.

To my knowledge Dr. Harvey is not a derm, he's a specialist in parasites.

2. Experience papules (like a mosquito bite) which if treated with caladryl, ziradryl, or calamine lotion will disappear in a few days, other wise, they might worsen and multiply.

Question: Do bug bombs work for furniture/households?

Answer: I did the bug bombs and I'd and don't remember if they worked, but it doesn't matter. Since you have them on your body, you'd need to disinfect your surroundings every day anyway until the itching is gone--I sprayed ammonia solution (diluted approx four parts water to one part ammonia) and you no longer feel them jumping on your ankles or legs. Step #5 of the report handles the disinfection pretty thoroughly.

Question: Should I just move apartments?

Answer: You'd have to toss all your chairs, beds, bedding, and clothing. And you'd still end up shampooing rugs with disinfectant, washing clothing with bleach or ammonia (never together).

Question: After some delving into the specifics of Spelt Bread I discovered Spelt Bread does contain Gluten.
Is there some reason why the King Diet suggest avoiding Gluten but does suggest the use of Spelt Bread? I would like to try the Spelt Bread but am a little confused as far as the Gluten is concerned.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Answer: Thanks for your note. Gluten is generally associated with wheat products. The irony is that spelt is a distant cousin to wheat--referred as the grandfather of modern wheat. But according to http://www.spelt.com/

"But it's not just good taste that has caught the attention of consumers on this side of the Atlantic . The grain is naturally high in fiber, and contain significantly more protein than wheat. Spelt is also higher in B complex vitamins, and both simple and complex carbohydrates. Another important benefit is that some gluten-sensitive people have been able to include spelt-based foods in their diets."

However, it does not say that spelt has "no gluten", it does mention that wheat was developed over the years to have a high gluten content.

What was your source as to the gluten content in spelt as no mention of gluten is in the above reference?

I generally don't test flours that mention a relationship to wheat--there was no reference to wheat on the flour package or the packaged bread so being the guinea pig that I am, I tested it and found no reaction--no itching and no papules) as opposed to barley which contributed to formation of papules.

How are you doing with the diet? Anything you'd like to share is greatly appreciated. For years I thought the diet was more like a leaf of a tree and once one was on the right medical or nutritional treatment (yet to be discovered) diet would be unnecessary. Now I see the diet as being the root and trunk of the tree and seriously don't believe any medical, nutritional, homeopathic, rifing... will solve the problem without the diet.

As far as spelt goes, I could only say to test it. Testing is best when you have just been on the diet a few days and have gotten rid of the itch and biting as opposed to being on the diet for a couple of months as in my experience it takes much longer to react.

Question: What kind of results do you get from Bowen Lab?

Answer: This is what the laboratory found in my blood. The one on the bottom is one of my red cells giving birth to the organisms.

Answer: I don't know the answer. I'm 99.5% symptom free, but still dealing with the LYME and maybe protozoan. And I assume the strawberry marks won't go away until the Lyme and protozoan infection is gone!!

Question: I continue to find an increasing number of small white flecks all over the house. A few unroll into a single strand of what appears to be cotton thread. Magnified 100X, 98% of them, even the tiniest variety, consist entirely of the same shining, crystal threads that identify Morg's larvae. If disturbed, these same white flecks will exit rapidly from a lesion, and they're very difficult to snare. They jump and vanish with ease from skin, clothes and counter tops. Forgive me if I've asked you about them before, but they're becoming more and more unmanageable. Can you identify them, please?

Answer: I don't know about them. Have you used the diatomaceous earth and diluted ammonia spray about your home? If not, use a dusk mask when dusting the diatomaceous earth to keep it from your lungs. I'll ask the question in the next update.